An Obituary to the Mother of Social Networks Orkut

Ten years ago, Orkut was Google’s first step into social networking: shaping life online before people really knew what “social networking” was. Social media in the BRIC nations was largely dominated by other social networks, when Facebook was born, since Russia had Vkontakte.ru; China had RenRen.com; and both Brazil and India enjoyed Google’s social network Orkut, which was launched in the same year of 2004.

Know why?

Because they are believed to be more community oriented, and of course the “advertisement-free” environment added to the charm. But, in the past few years we’ve seen Orkut’s last frontier of dominance quietly being wiped out by Facebook in Brazil and India, as it spluttered, coughed and now dies. Facebook took over Orkut in the race because of a number of factors given to its intuitive user interface, the lack of privacy or what they called being more social and also the online gaming experience and apps.

Back this year, the news came out as a shock when the official Orkut blog stated, “Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world. Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut’s growth, we’ve decided to bid Orkut farewell (or, tchau). We’ll be focusing our energy and resources on making these other social platforms as amazing as possible for everyone who uses them.”

This is not the company’s first attempt to plug a plug on its services, and Orkut just seems to add to the lineup. The company will preserve an archive of all Orkut “communities” that will be available from Sept. 30 onwards, when the social network will permanently shut down its doors for the public, while keeping the memories alive.

Come what may, whatever be the number of new networks which may come up over the globe, Orkut will remain to have a special place in the era of internet.

Instagram

About Us

GadgetAdda is an online publication which covers the happenings in the domain of technology. We aim at delivering up-to-date information of whats hot and whats not. The services that we provide cater to tech enthusiasts as well as the startups that have spent a lot of time in getting their traction to a good level.